Carcassonne or Strasbourg?

Neither city is on the coast, but Carcassonne is far closer to real swimming. The Lac de la Cavayère, a short drive from the Cité, has sandy shores and lifeguards. The long, shallow beaches of Gruissan and Narbonne-Plage are about an hour away, which makes a Mediterranean day out easy.

Strasbourg has no sea within reach. Locals cool off in old gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee, which you can reach by tram, lying out on grassy banks beside calm fresh water. They are pleasant on a hot afternoon, but the Rhine itself is not for swimming.

Strasbourg eats better and more widely. In the wood-panelled winstubs you can have choucroute, baeckeoffe or tarte flambée with a pichet of Riesling, and the city and nearby villages also have a strong fine-dining tier, good markets and plenty of local beer.

Carcassonne's table rests mainly on cassoulet and excellent cheap wine from Corbières, Minervois and Limoux. Range is narrow beyond southern French bistro cooking. Both cities have a tourist trap around their main sight, and in Carcassonne the better meals are down in the Bastide around Place Carnot.

Carcassonne has one great set piece: the double-walled Cité with its fifty-two towers, the Château Comtal and the stained glass of Saint-Nazaire. Below it, the Bastide grid town and the Canal du Midi round out the visit, but there are few museums to fill a wet afternoon.

Strasbourg has more depth. The pink sandstone cathedral with its astronomical clock, the timber-framed lanes of the Grande Ile and Petite France, and the imperial Neustadt make a full townscape. The Palais Rohan, the Oeuvre Notre-Dame and the modern art museum add collections that Carcassonne cannot match.

Neither city is made for late nights, but Strasbourg has more going on after dark. Its large student population keeps the bars and beer cellars of the Krutenau and Place Saint-Étienne busy, and in summer the riverside terraces stay full well into the evening.

Carcassonne's evenings are quieter. You walk the floodlit walls once the day visitors have gone, then have a drink on a terrace on Place Carnot, and people wanting a real night out drive to Toulouse or Montpellier.

There is about as much outdoors around each city, but the landscapes differ. Around Carcassonne it is dry and southern: garrigue hills crowned with Cathar ruins, the beech woods of the Montagne Noire, and gorges in the upper Aude where you can raft in summer. Nearly all of it needs a car.

Strasbourg's outdoors starts at the edge of town, with flat cycle routes along the Rhine and riverside forests where storks and beavers live. Within an hour are the fir-covered Vosges and the Black Forest, with some snow on the higher ground in winter and trains to the main trailheads.

Both are excellent bases for day trips. Carcassonne's are mostly rural: the cliff-top castles of Peyrepertuse and Quéribus, villages such as Minerve and Lagrasse, and wine estates, with Toulouse and Narbonne the easy rail trips.

Strasbourg's are more varied and easier to reach by train. Colmar is half an hour away, Freiburg, Baden-Baden and Basel are across the border, and the Alsace wine route with Riquewihr and Haut-Koenigsbourg runs between them.

Carcassonne has the more thrilling single sight for children. The Cité looks like a storybook castle, with jousting and falconry in summer, and the lake with its water park fills the rest of the time. Against that, the cobbles are steep, the summer crowds are thick, and you will be pushing a pushchair uphill in midday heat.

Strasbourg is easier day to day. The centre is flat and largely car-free, and children have boat trips, the stork-filled Orangerie and the hands-on Le Vaisseau science centre. Europa-Park is about an hour away across the border.

In Strasbourg you will not need a car. The island centre is walkable and largely pedestrianised, and trams run to the station, the European quarter and over the Rhine to Kehl. A dense network of separate cycle lanes often makes a bike the quickest option.

Carcassonne's flat Bastide is easy on foot, but the Cité means a steady uphill walk or the seasonal shuttle. Beyond the Toulouse and Narbonne rail lines, the castles and villages are poorly served by public transport, so you will probably end up hiring a car.

Strasbourg has proper shopping streets around Place Kléber and the Rue des Grandes Arcades, a department store, bookshops and delicatessens. Soufflenheim pottery and Alsatian linens make good souvenirs, and the old Christmas market turns December into the season for crafts.

Carcassonne's Cité is lined with toy swords and Cathar trinkets, and the Bastide has an ordinary provincial high street. The things worth bringing home are edible: tinned cassoulet, blanquette and wine from the Place Carnot market.

Carcassonne is the cheaper stay. It is priced like a provincial southern town, and you can walk everywhere, with the walled Cité's hotels and restaurants as the expensive exception. Spring and autumn cost much less than July and August, and car hire is the cost most visitors add.

Strasbourg costs what a large regional city does. Meals in the winstubs and getting around by tram are fair, and the cathedral and old streets are free. Hotels are the main expense, and rates jump during the Christmas market and the sitting weeks of the European Parliament.

Strasbourg has a year-round calendar that Carcassonne cannot match. The Opéra national du Rhin plays on Place Broglie, a full philharmonic season and the Théâtre National de Strasbourg fill the winter, and the autumn Musica festival is devoted to contemporary music.

Carcassonne's big moment is July, when the Festival de Carcassonne brings headline acts to the open-air theatre inside the walls, and Bastille Day brings fireworks over the ramparts. Outside summer there is little beyond the municipal theatre.

Strasbourg has its own bathing tradition in the Bains municipaux, an early twentieth-century bathhouse with tiled pools, a hammam and saunas. The grand thermal baths of Baden-Baden are less than an hour away.

Carcassonne's nearest springs are small spa villages in the upper Aude, such as Alet-les-Bains, which are modest and local. Its calm comes instead from slow lunches and shaded walks along the canal, at least outside the crowded summer months.